A few years ago, I found myself in the Canadian Rockies on a late summer afternoon. The sun was starting to dip behind some of the taller peaks and the pace of life had started to diminish. It was one of those cherished “ahhhhh” moments.

When all of a sudden, my world exploded. Lightning lit up a darkening sky. Rain clouds were everywhere and thunder reigned. Now, I am a Southern California girl. We don’t do storms like they do in the mid-west. So, when that thunder started to roar, I quivered behind the drapes.

Science will tell us that thunder is created when a lightning bolt creates a hole in the air. The air is heated up to an astonishing 48,000 degrees Fahrenheit. That heated air has no time to expand so it just explodes out of that channel. It forms a shock wave and makes a booming burst of noise.

But I am convinced that thunder is just a sample of God’s resounding voice. It is a way for Him to remind us that He is in charge.  Those claps of thunder express His will. And my evidence is verses like Job 37:4 where it says, “After that comes the sound of His roar, He thunders with His majestic voice.”

In I Samuel 7:10, God used “…loud thunder against the Philistines and threw them into such a panic that they were routed before the Israelites.”

Israel had real problems. They needed God to show up on their behalf and boy did He! The enemy panicked, but not God’s kids. With the raising of the Ebenezer stone, they declared, “Thus far the Lord has helped us.”

What a reflection of an important life principle for us this week: We can trust God to help us. When (not if) the very real storms of life descend on us, we learn to trust in our Savior. We learn to remind ourselves of His faithfulness. We learn to encourage each other through the turmoil. We learn to trust Him with our pain.

We learn to expect our enemy to attack our personal lives. We know he will use finances, family pressures, work issues and health concerns to distract our faith and disrupt our walk.

But when we remember the thunder that scared off the Philistines, we can be encouraged to trust the Lord to help us in any situation. He thunders. He rules.

Many of us may be traveling this summer to places where thunder rolls. If you happen to hear those grumblings or the vicious claps of thunder, let’s use that sound to remind us once again that God is in control and on our side.

We can trust Him to help us. Every single day!